THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (Santa
Monica, California)

For Immediate Release

June 24, 2000

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN FIRST INTERNET
WEBCAST

Los Angeles, California

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Here in America, a revolution in
technology is underway. It is more than a time of innovation, it's a time of
fundamental transformation, the kind that happens, at most, every hundred
years. Today, in my first Saturday Webcast, I'd like to speak to you about how
we can seize the potential of this information revolution to widen the circle
of our democracy and make our government much more responsive to the needs of
our citizens.

Early in our history, people often had only one option when they
needed the help of the national government. They had to visit a government
office and stand in line. Indeed, as Vice President Gore has pointed out, after
the Civil War the only way our veterans could collect their pensions was by
traveling all the way to Washington. D.C. and waiting for a clerk to dig out
their war records. Those war records were actually bound in red tape. That gave
rise to the universal symbol of bureaucratic delay that has existed down to the
present day.

Thankfully, things have gotten a lot easier for citizens over the
years. In recent years, advances in computing and information technology have
led to remarkable gains. Under the leadership of Vice President Gore, we have
greatly expanded the spread of information technology throughout the
government, cutting reams of red tape, putting vast resources at the fingertips
of all of our citizens. Citizens now are using government websites to file
their taxes, compare their Medicare options, apply for student loans, and find
good jobs. They're tapping into the latest health research, and browsing vast
collections in the Library of Congress, and following along with NASA's
missions in outer space. This is just the beginning.

Today I'm pleased to announce several major steps in our efforts to go
forward in creating a high-speed, high-tech, user-friendly government. First,
we're going to give our citizens a single, customer-focused website where they
can find every on-line resource offered by the federal government.

This new website, firstgov.gov, will be created at no cost to the
government by a team led by Eric Brewer, who developed one of the most
successful Internet search technologies with the help of government grants. In
the spirit of cutting through red tape, this new website will be created in 90
days or less. It will uphold the highest standards for protecting the privacy
of its users.

When it's complete, firstgov will serve as a single point of entry to
one of the largest, perhaps the most useful collection of web pages in the
entire world. Whether you want crucial information in starting a small
business, or you want to track your Social Security benefits, you can do it all
in one place, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Second, now that we're poised to create one-stop shopping for
government services, we'll also greatly expand the scope of those services.
Increasingly, we'll give our citizens not only the ability to send and receive
information, but also to conduct sophisticated transactions on-line.

For example, this year the federal government will award about $300
billion in grants, and buy $200 billion in goods and services. Over the coming
year, we will make it possible for people to go on-line and compete for these
grants and contracts through a simplified electronic process. Moving this
enormous volume of business on-line will save a great deal of money and time
for our taxpayers. It will also expand opportunities for community groups,
small businesses, and citizens who never before have had a chance to show what
they can do.

Third, in conjunction with the nonprofit Council for Excellence in
Government, we're launching a major competition to spur new innovative ideas
for how government can serve and connect with our citizens electronically. The
Council will award up to $50,000 to those students, researchers, private sector
workers or government employees who present the most creative ideas.

In the early years of our republic, Thomas Jefferson said, "America's
institutions must move forward hand in hand with the progress of the human
mind." Well, today, the progress of the human mind is certainly racing forward
at break-neck speed. If we work together, we can ensure that our democratic
institutions keep pace. With your help, we can build a more perfect, more
responsive democracy for the Information Age.